More than usability: four components of User Experience
This is a translation of the original article More Than Usability: The Four Elements of User Experience, Part I
Some mistakenly consider User Experience (UX) and usability as synonymous. However, “usability” is increasingly being used in a narrower sense as a designation of how convenient it is for users to perform the required tasks, and is associated with the concept of “usability testing”. Thus, usability is perceived by many as a tactical aspect of the process of developing software products. User experience, on the contrary, is used by UX-specialists in a much wider sense and incorporates a variety of aspects: user-friendliness, user engagement, visual appeal of the product, etc. This term best reflects the psychological and behavioral aspects of user interaction with software. products.
This article presents a diagram describing the four components of the user experience (see Fig. 1) and how their interaction allows improving final products. This scheme will help determine the goals and scope of activities aimed at creating a positive user experience.
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Fig. 1. Four components of user experience
To simplify, the multiple aspects of user experience have been reduced to these four components as the most fundamental. Other aspects of user experience, such as reliability, availability, and ease of searching, described by Peter Morville, can be viewed as components of the four main components.
Many mean by the term “usability” all elements of the user experience, although in fact usability should be viewed rather as one of its components.
Usability is the degree of convenience with which the user can perform their tasks using a software product. There are many usability-related issues that prevent users from achieving the desired result. Let's give some examples.
An iPhone user wants to call a person who is not in his contact list, and he needs to enter the number manually. He presses the Phone button at the bottom of the screen. While everything is simple, but what to do next? There is no on-screen keyboard. There is no field in which to enter a number either. Using terms from the interaction design domain, it can be said that in this case there is no call to action, invitation, or contextual stimulus. For some time, the user carefully examines the screen, until finally, after half a minute does not find the button "Keypad" at the bottom of the screen. The problem is solved, but how much time the user had to spend on a banal phone number entry! But this is one of the main functions of any phone. This is a prime example of a usability problem.
Let's give one more example. Recall how you first had to use a corporate intranet to order stationery, send an expense report, track your own career advancement, or learn about payroll. Surely it was not without the help of a support service or someone from colleagues, right? The usability of most intranet sites is at a very, very low level - it’s just impossible to think of some things on your own.
Unfortunately, such problems can be found in most applications. We will give just a few examples of how dissatisfied users can remain after working with such software products.
Usability does not directly address issues related to such elements of the presented user experience scheme, such as, for example, the user's intentions, involvement or visual appeal of the product. The usability category includes those user experience components that are somehow related to usability.
In this category, you can include aspects such as ease of development of the product; comprehensibility, detectability and readability of content; as well as how easy it is for a user to recognize information and invitations to action.
Usability in itself is a fairly broad topic, the development of which has been devoted to a whole generation of specialists in the field of human-computer interaction, who sought to make the use of digital products more convenient and enjoyable. Of course, user experience is not limited solely to the ability to perform tasks, learn new functions, or navigate a website. When it comes to commercial success, very different aspects of ux come to the fore.
Although usability is an important aspect of product design, it is not decisive in achieving commercial success. Many products with excellent usability are unclaimed in the market. As an example, traditional mobile phones, inexorably losing ground under the onslaught of smartphones, can be given, while using traditional models is much more convenient. What is the reason? The fact is that now consumers need a variety of functions that traditional phones, unlike smartphones, do not support: this is web surfing, and instant messengers, and games, and GPS, and much more. This example perfectly captures the essence of the value aspect of user experience.
What makes products valuable to users? The answer: matching the product’s functions to the user's needs. The user considers the product as useful if the functions of the product satisfy its needs. Moreover, this means not only expressed needs, in which users are aware of. Hidden needs are also taken into account here, which users in fact are not aware of as such. Vivid examples of meeting hidden needs are Apple products, such as iPhones and iPads. They are not only easy to use, but also allow you to meet the hidden needs of users, making their lives much more comfortable.
The value of the product is very closely related to other UX components, such as usability and attractiveness, but unlike them, it is determined by the functionality of the product. Value underlies favorable user experience. Regardless of how thoughtful design, if the product is not considered as useful, then the user experience is unlikely to be favorable.
Yahoo! browser toolbar (see Fig. 2) can be both convenient and useful for an ordinary Internet user, but to use its functions, you first have to install it. Here we are faced with another component of user experience - accessibility.
Fig. 2. Yahoo! browser toolbar
Here are some examples of accessibility issues. When a company releases an iPhone application, the link to this application is usually placed on the company's main website. This creates a lot of problems for users: how to download an application on iPhone using this link, if the main website is intended to be viewed on a desktop computer and not on a mobile device? An example of this problem is the Vanguard website (see Figure 3), which provides financial consulting services.
Fig. 3. Vanguard.com website
It would be more logical to place a link to the iPhone application on the mobile version of the site, which opens on the iPhone by default. However, contrary to expectations, there was no link to the application on the mobile version of the site. There is a big problem with accessibility. You can download the Vanguard application for iPhone only by resorting to a very sophisticated procedure: you first need to open the iTunes Store, enter Vanguard in the search box, then select the application you need and, finally, install it. This way of exploring the program can not be called spontaneous.
From the above, it becomes clear that accessibility is closely related to the planning of workflows. In addition, accessibility is influenced by aspects such as reliability and brand perception: insufficiently authentic content or content associated with an unpopular brand is unlikely to attract users.
Accessibility and usability are closely interrelated. UX specialists resort to proven usability methods to make products more accessible and allow users to familiarize themselves with the functions of the products they create in a natural way. However, it is necessary to distinguish these two components from each other. Accessibility concerns how users purchase, download, install the product and start using it. Accessibility is related to the stage when the user has not yet had time to work with the product, while usability comes into play with the start of using the product. Emphasizing this distinction, I would like to recall a frequently forgotten aspect of the user experience strategy: the product should be easily accessible.
It is also obvious that the availability and usefulness of the product are different things. The user can refuse to use even a very useful product if he encounters difficulties when accessing it or installing it, as shown above. Accessibility is associated with an indication of the shortest path to the product, and utility - directly with the functions of the product and its content. To avoid problems with accessibility, developers need to take into account the situation in which the user first encounters their product and how this may affect the installation process.
At first glance, it may seem that accessibility has much in common with product marketing, since both are associated with product promotion and promotion of its use. Traditional marketing is advertising campaigns, website promotion, emailing, and so on. In contrast, accessibility is an integral part of user experience, and should be considered as an integral part of the product development process.
So far, we have been discussing only cognitive, that is, rational, aspects of user experience. In contrast, attractiveness refers to the emotional sphere. Often, convenient and functional products do not find demand in the market simply because they are not attractive enough for users. Such a fate befell the traditional MP3-players in an unequal struggle with the iPod, as well as the electronics of many manufacturers loses to Sony.
Many products are in demand, despite the flaws in their usability. Take, for example, video games, the usability of most of which is far from perfect: the instructions are contradictory, the navigation is confusing, the settings menu is hidden in the most unexpected places, and there’s no need to talk about the readability of the content. But these games are so fascinating that all the listed disadvantages do not stop users.
Attractiveness is primarily associated with innovative visual design. A thoughtful appearance stimulates the attractiveness of the product (see Fig. 4 and 5).
Fig. 4. Attractive Bing Appearance
Fig. 5. Attractive iPad look
It is worth noting that attractiveness is always defined in the context of the tasks facing the user, and, thus, does not boil down solely to pretty graphics and customized design. The attractiveness of the product should be associated with the tasks that the user needs to solve through this product. The same product can be attractive to users interested in its functionality, and absolutely not attractive to users outside its target audience. For example, I like to analyze data, and in this regard I really like Excel. Despite the fact that this program does not have a sophisticated design, I am happy to work in it: its primitive interface is perfect for data analysis. Animated Excel would no longer be so attractive to me, since the graphics would distract from the direct execution of tasks.
Fig. 6. Attractiveness cannot be reduced solely to a rich graphics interface, as is the case with Excel
As examples of how attractiveness should be viewed in the context of a user's tasks, consider the main pages of the Nordstrom.com and eBay.com websites. In terms of appearance, Nordstrom.com (Fig. 7) is far ahead because it looks much more neat and cute. But in terms of user experience, the eBay.com home page is much more attractive for the majority of eBay users who buy goods at auction. The reason is simple: eBay buyers are constantly on the lookout for great deals, and images of used items for sale are what they need. The design of the main page of Nordstrom.com hints at the fact that not cheap goods are sold here - you will not be lured by eBay buyers. Online auctions are a key activity on eBay.com, and in order to remain attractive to users, this site does not require an overly sleek design.
Fig. 7. Nordstrom.com website
Fig. 8. Website eBay.com.
Differences between user experience components
We looked at the four components of user experience, and you might have the feeling that they all look alike. The following examples will help you clearly distinguish these components:
• The problem of accessibility: the user would like to use the application for the iPhone, which praised his friend, but does not know how to install it.
• Usability problem: actively using the product, the user nevertheless hardly solves the tasks facing him.
• The problem of attractiveness: despite the fact that the user hardly performs some tasks, he enjoys the product. That is, with the attractiveness of this product, everything is in order, but with usability there are some problems.
• The problem of utility: the user can easily solve all the tasks before him, but does not perceive the functions of the product as useful.
The scheme, in which the user experience is divided into four interrelated components (utility, usability, accessibility and attractiveness), can help UX-specialists to help in determining the key elements of product development and their improvement.
Of course, this is not the only approach to understanding user experience. The components included in this scheme do not exist independently - all of them intersect in one way or another. Appearance often encourages potential users to start using a product — attractiveness affects accessibility. Usability, in turn, affects the attractiveness: if the user is constantly experiencing difficulties in working with the program, the attractiveness of the product for him will inevitably decrease.
For UX specialists it is very important to understand the essence of the components of the user experience. Paying attention to all four aspects of user interaction with digital products, you can develop solutions that take into account all aspects of user experience as a whole. This is important not only in terms of improving user experience, but also in terms of the impact of the UX strategy on commercial success.
The key advantage of this model is that its achievements in the field of user experience are viewed through the prism of their influence on business. For example, in the past, UX-specialists paid great attention to usability, without thinking too much about accessibility - an aspect, from the point of view of commercial success, even more important than usability. Compared to the other three components of user experience, usability has the least impact on the business, since it is related to the constant use of the product, while the rest is about providing access to the product and how to encourage users to use the product.
Other models, unlike the ones presented above, do not properly evaluate the degree of influence of various components of user experience on a business. For example, according to Peter Morvill's scheme, all components of user experience — ease of search, reliability, utility, usability, reach, etc. — are equally important. Yes, they can really be equal in terms of user experience, but in terms of business results, this is far from being the case. This is the key idea embedded in this model. Its effective use to assess current advances in user experience deserves a separate discussion. The implications of this model for business will be discussed in subsequent articles.
Posted by: Frank Guo
Some mistakenly consider User Experience (UX) and usability as synonymous. However, “usability” is increasingly being used in a narrower sense as a designation of how convenient it is for users to perform the required tasks, and is associated with the concept of “usability testing”. Thus, usability is perceived by many as a tactical aspect of the process of developing software products. User experience, on the contrary, is used by UX-specialists in a much wider sense and incorporates a variety of aspects: user-friendliness, user engagement, visual appeal of the product, etc. This term best reflects the psychological and behavioral aspects of user interaction with software. products.
This article presents a diagram describing the four components of the user experience (see Fig. 1) and how their interaction allows improving final products. This scheme will help determine the goals and scope of activities aimed at creating a positive user experience.
')
Fig. 1. Four components of user experience
To simplify, the multiple aspects of user experience have been reduced to these four components as the most fundamental. Other aspects of user experience, such as reliability, availability, and ease of searching, described by Peter Morville, can be viewed as components of the four main components.
Usability: Is it easy for users to solve their tasks?
Many mean by the term “usability” all elements of the user experience, although in fact usability should be viewed rather as one of its components.
Usability is the degree of convenience with which the user can perform their tasks using a software product. There are many usability-related issues that prevent users from achieving the desired result. Let's give some examples.
An iPhone user wants to call a person who is not in his contact list, and he needs to enter the number manually. He presses the Phone button at the bottom of the screen. While everything is simple, but what to do next? There is no on-screen keyboard. There is no field in which to enter a number either. Using terms from the interaction design domain, it can be said that in this case there is no call to action, invitation, or contextual stimulus. For some time, the user carefully examines the screen, until finally, after half a minute does not find the button "Keypad" at the bottom of the screen. The problem is solved, but how much time the user had to spend on a banal phone number entry! But this is one of the main functions of any phone. This is a prime example of a usability problem.
Let's give one more example. Recall how you first had to use a corporate intranet to order stationery, send an expense report, track your own career advancement, or learn about payroll. Surely it was not without the help of a support service or someone from colleagues, right? The usability of most intranet sites is at a very, very low level - it’s just impossible to think of some things on your own.
Unfortunately, such problems can be found in most applications. We will give just a few examples of how dissatisfied users can remain after working with such software products.
Usability does not directly address issues related to such elements of the presented user experience scheme, such as, for example, the user's intentions, involvement or visual appeal of the product. The usability category includes those user experience components that are somehow related to usability.
In this category, you can include aspects such as ease of development of the product; comprehensibility, detectability and readability of content; as well as how easy it is for a user to recognize information and invitations to action.
Usability in itself is a fairly broad topic, the development of which has been devoted to a whole generation of specialists in the field of human-computer interaction, who sought to make the use of digital products more convenient and enjoyable. Of course, user experience is not limited solely to the ability to perform tasks, learn new functions, or navigate a website. When it comes to commercial success, very different aspects of ux come to the fore.
Value: is the product useful to users
Although usability is an important aspect of product design, it is not decisive in achieving commercial success. Many products with excellent usability are unclaimed in the market. As an example, traditional mobile phones, inexorably losing ground under the onslaught of smartphones, can be given, while using traditional models is much more convenient. What is the reason? The fact is that now consumers need a variety of functions that traditional phones, unlike smartphones, do not support: this is web surfing, and instant messengers, and games, and GPS, and much more. This example perfectly captures the essence of the value aspect of user experience.
What makes products valuable to users? The answer: matching the product’s functions to the user's needs. The user considers the product as useful if the functions of the product satisfy its needs. Moreover, this means not only expressed needs, in which users are aware of. Hidden needs are also taken into account here, which users in fact are not aware of as such. Vivid examples of meeting hidden needs are Apple products, such as iPhones and iPads. They are not only easy to use, but also allow you to meet the hidden needs of users, making their lives much more comfortable.
The value of the product is very closely related to other UX components, such as usability and attractiveness, but unlike them, it is determined by the functionality of the product. Value underlies favorable user experience. Regardless of how thoughtful design, if the product is not considered as useful, then the user experience is unlikely to be favorable.
Adoptability: will users start working with the product
Yahoo! browser toolbar (see Fig. 2) can be both convenient and useful for an ordinary Internet user, but to use its functions, you first have to install it. Here we are faced with another component of user experience - accessibility.
Fig. 2. Yahoo! browser toolbar
Here are some examples of accessibility issues. When a company releases an iPhone application, the link to this application is usually placed on the company's main website. This creates a lot of problems for users: how to download an application on iPhone using this link, if the main website is intended to be viewed on a desktop computer and not on a mobile device? An example of this problem is the Vanguard website (see Figure 3), which provides financial consulting services.
Fig. 3. Vanguard.com website
It would be more logical to place a link to the iPhone application on the mobile version of the site, which opens on the iPhone by default. However, contrary to expectations, there was no link to the application on the mobile version of the site. There is a big problem with accessibility. You can download the Vanguard application for iPhone only by resorting to a very sophisticated procedure: you first need to open the iTunes Store, enter Vanguard in the search box, then select the application you need and, finally, install it. This way of exploring the program can not be called spontaneous.
From the above, it becomes clear that accessibility is closely related to the planning of workflows. In addition, accessibility is influenced by aspects such as reliability and brand perception: insufficiently authentic content or content associated with an unpopular brand is unlikely to attract users.
Accessibility and usability are closely interrelated. UX specialists resort to proven usability methods to make products more accessible and allow users to familiarize themselves with the functions of the products they create in a natural way. However, it is necessary to distinguish these two components from each other. Accessibility concerns how users purchase, download, install the product and start using it. Accessibility is related to the stage when the user has not yet had time to work with the product, while usability comes into play with the start of using the product. Emphasizing this distinction, I would like to recall a frequently forgotten aspect of the user experience strategy: the product should be easily accessible.
It is also obvious that the availability and usefulness of the product are different things. The user can refuse to use even a very useful product if he encounters difficulties when accessing it or installing it, as shown above. Accessibility is associated with an indication of the shortest path to the product, and utility - directly with the functions of the product and its content. To avoid problems with accessibility, developers need to take into account the situation in which the user first encounters their product and how this may affect the installation process.
At first glance, it may seem that accessibility has much in common with product marketing, since both are associated with product promotion and promotion of its use. Traditional marketing is advertising campaigns, website promotion, emailing, and so on. In contrast, accessibility is an integral part of user experience, and should be considered as an integral part of the product development process.
Attractiveness: Does the user like working with the product?
So far, we have been discussing only cognitive, that is, rational, aspects of user experience. In contrast, attractiveness refers to the emotional sphere. Often, convenient and functional products do not find demand in the market simply because they are not attractive enough for users. Such a fate befell the traditional MP3-players in an unequal struggle with the iPod, as well as the electronics of many manufacturers loses to Sony.
Many products are in demand, despite the flaws in their usability. Take, for example, video games, the usability of most of which is far from perfect: the instructions are contradictory, the navigation is confusing, the settings menu is hidden in the most unexpected places, and there’s no need to talk about the readability of the content. But these games are so fascinating that all the listed disadvantages do not stop users.
Attractiveness is primarily associated with innovative visual design. A thoughtful appearance stimulates the attractiveness of the product (see Fig. 4 and 5).
Fig. 4. Attractive Bing Appearance
Fig. 5. Attractive iPad look
It is worth noting that attractiveness is always defined in the context of the tasks facing the user, and, thus, does not boil down solely to pretty graphics and customized design. The attractiveness of the product should be associated with the tasks that the user needs to solve through this product. The same product can be attractive to users interested in its functionality, and absolutely not attractive to users outside its target audience. For example, I like to analyze data, and in this regard I really like Excel. Despite the fact that this program does not have a sophisticated design, I am happy to work in it: its primitive interface is perfect for data analysis. Animated Excel would no longer be so attractive to me, since the graphics would distract from the direct execution of tasks.
Fig. 6. Attractiveness cannot be reduced solely to a rich graphics interface, as is the case with Excel
As examples of how attractiveness should be viewed in the context of a user's tasks, consider the main pages of the Nordstrom.com and eBay.com websites. In terms of appearance, Nordstrom.com (Fig. 7) is far ahead because it looks much more neat and cute. But in terms of user experience, the eBay.com home page is much more attractive for the majority of eBay users who buy goods at auction. The reason is simple: eBay buyers are constantly on the lookout for great deals, and images of used items for sale are what they need. The design of the main page of Nordstrom.com hints at the fact that not cheap goods are sold here - you will not be lured by eBay buyers. Online auctions are a key activity on eBay.com, and in order to remain attractive to users, this site does not require an overly sleek design.
Fig. 7. Nordstrom.com website
Fig. 8. Website eBay.com.
Differences between user experience components
We looked at the four components of user experience, and you might have the feeling that they all look alike. The following examples will help you clearly distinguish these components:
• The problem of accessibility: the user would like to use the application for the iPhone, which praised his friend, but does not know how to install it.
• Usability problem: actively using the product, the user nevertheless hardly solves the tasks facing him.
• The problem of attractiveness: despite the fact that the user hardly performs some tasks, he enjoys the product. That is, with the attractiveness of this product, everything is in order, but with usability there are some problems.
• The problem of utility: the user can easily solve all the tasks before him, but does not perceive the functions of the product as useful.
Conclusion
The scheme, in which the user experience is divided into four interrelated components (utility, usability, accessibility and attractiveness), can help UX-specialists to help in determining the key elements of product development and their improvement.
Of course, this is not the only approach to understanding user experience. The components included in this scheme do not exist independently - all of them intersect in one way or another. Appearance often encourages potential users to start using a product — attractiveness affects accessibility. Usability, in turn, affects the attractiveness: if the user is constantly experiencing difficulties in working with the program, the attractiveness of the product for him will inevitably decrease.
For UX specialists it is very important to understand the essence of the components of the user experience. Paying attention to all four aspects of user interaction with digital products, you can develop solutions that take into account all aspects of user experience as a whole. This is important not only in terms of improving user experience, but also in terms of the impact of the UX strategy on commercial success.
The key advantage of this model is that its achievements in the field of user experience are viewed through the prism of their influence on business. For example, in the past, UX-specialists paid great attention to usability, without thinking too much about accessibility - an aspect, from the point of view of commercial success, even more important than usability. Compared to the other three components of user experience, usability has the least impact on the business, since it is related to the constant use of the product, while the rest is about providing access to the product and how to encourage users to use the product.
Other models, unlike the ones presented above, do not properly evaluate the degree of influence of various components of user experience on a business. For example, according to Peter Morvill's scheme, all components of user experience — ease of search, reliability, utility, usability, reach, etc. — are equally important. Yes, they can really be equal in terms of user experience, but in terms of business results, this is far from being the case. This is the key idea embedded in this model. Its effective use to assess current advances in user experience deserves a separate discussion. The implications of this model for business will be discussed in subsequent articles.
Posted by: Frank Guo
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/146674/
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